Celebrating the song traditions of Ireland, Scotland, and the Anglo-Celtic lands.

My Bonnie Blue-Eyed Lassie

A great performance by a great band. Here is the Bothy Band’s version of My Bonnie Blue-Eyed Lassie, sometimes called How Can I Live at the Top of the Mountain.

My Bonnie Blue-Eyed Lassie

And how can I live at the top of the mountain
Without gold in my pocket or money for the counting?
I’d leave the money go all for to please her fancy
For I will marry no-one but the bonnie blue eyed lassie.

The bonnie blue eyed lassie with her fair hair so tender,
Her red rosy cheeks and her waist neat and slender.
I’d roll her in my arms and fondly’d embrace her
But how can I love her when all my people hate her.

Some people say she’s very low in station
More of them say she’s the cause of my ruination,
Lord, let them all say what they will, to her I will prove constant still.
Until the day that I die she’s my charming girl believe me.

Brightly swims the swan in the broad streams of Eochill
And loudly sings the nightingale, all for to behold her.
And in cold frost and snow, the moon shines deeply
But deeper by far between me and my true love.